Although the Zimbabwe constitution states that election results must be released within six days of the vote, nearly three weeks after residents of one of Africa's poorest countries went to the polls to chose a new president, no winner has been announced. President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party are holding up the results, and it is doubtful they would be doing so if they had actually won. World leaders have tried to pressure Mr. Mugabe into releasing the results, but because he is already an international
pariah,
he has little to lose by ignoring
them. The one world leader who could have influence on Mugabe is South African President Thabo Mbeki, however after meeting with Mugabe, he stated that there was no election crisis in Zimbabwe.
The results of the parliamentary election, which was narrowly won by the opposition, were released shortly after the vote; however, the government is contesting 22 of the seats and performing a recount. The opposition claims that the government is manipulating the recount in an attempt to give power back to the Zanu-PF. They also fear that if the presidential election goes to a
run-off,
the government will fix the vote for Mugabe as well.
Despite last week's walkout by the Kenyan opposition, their negotiations with the government of President Mwai Kabaki have resulted in a new
cabinet
that splits power evenly. However, in order to keep the elites from both parties happy, the size of the cabinet has been significantly increased, which will ultimately place a large strain on the government's budget. The make-up of the new government will retain Kibaki as president, and install opposition leader Raila Odinga as Prime Minister.
Silvio Berlusconi has become prime minister of Italy for the third time. He replaces Romani Prodi, whose unpopular centre-left government was in power for only 23 months and during that time was not able to halt Italy's economic slowdown. According to the Economist, Italy's
GDP per head
has fallen below the EU average, and economic growth is expected to be only 0.3 percent next year. Although Berlusconi didn't produce significant economic results during his first
stints
as prime minster from 1994 to 1995 and 2001 to 2006, his strong majorities in both houses of parliament
ensure
that he will probably have a full five years to make reforms. In comparison to his earlier governments, this one will consist of parties further to the right, which makes Italy's political left nervous.
Although votes will be counted into next week, Nepal's Maoists are set to win a large
plurality
in the country's parliamentary elections. As early as two years ago, the Maoists were a rebel group whose armed struggle against the government had cost over 10,000 deaths. The United States in fact, still considers them a terrorist group. However the Maoists gave up their fight and entered the political process in 2006 after Nepal's king agreed to relinquish absolute power to a coalition of six parties headed by the Nepali Congress (NC), which is currently running second in this election. The results have come as a surprise to most observers, considering the Maoists violent past; however, the disappointments of past NC and United Marxist-Leninist (UML) governments, and to a lesser extent, the pre-election Maoist
intimidation
of voters, have influenced Nepal to
embark on an uncharted political future.
The
restraining order
which keeps Britney Spears' ex-manager Sam Lutfi away from the pop star has been extended until July. Spears' mother took out the restraining order in February claiming that Lufti had been putting drugs in her daughter's food and taking control of her finances. Currently, Spears' father has control of the star's
affairs.
In another development, a judge has ordered that Spears' attorneys be paid almost $400,000 for the handling her recent legal affairs.
Author of the international bestselling Harry Potter novels, JK Rowling, was in court last week attempting to stop the publication of an
unauthorized
encyclopedia of the popular series. Although there have been many
companion
books to the Potter series, Rowling argues that this book is "sloppy and lazy," and that she should have the right to protect her work.
France's entry into this year's Euro-vision song contest contains some English lyrics, and as a result has
aroused
the
ire
of a French politician who believes that his country's entry should be sung entirely in French. The Euro-vision song contest is an annual competition in which pop songs from 43 European countries compete against each other. Past winners have included the Swedish group ABBA for their hit Waterloo. There is no rule against songs that are not in the country's native language, and, in fact, many songs are in English. Despite the politician's objections, there is little chance that France will change its entry. For one, the government has no say on which song is submitted, and even if it did, France's culture minister supports the entry.
There were rumors last week that singer Ashlee Simpson is
pregnant
and that she and her fiancé,
Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz will get married next month in San Diego. When confronted with these rumors, Simpson replied that "some things you want to keep personal."
